Re: Mathematica 3.0 for Mac (was: Deceptive Mma Advertising!)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg5169] Re: Mathematica 3.0 for Mac (was: Deceptive Mma Advertising!)
- From: Scott Brew <sbrew>
- Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 01:34:39 -0500
- Organization: Wolfram Research, Inc.
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
David Epstein wrote: > > I'm more than a little bit shocked, but Mma 3.0 for the Macintosh isn't > available yet. Even worse, if you go to the Wolfram web site, you can > "order" the software, complete with having them take your credit card > number and adding extra for overnight delivery, without their *ever* > telling you that the product doesn't exist yet! Then you wait for > delivery and end up puzzled when it doesn't arrive the next day. > > As far as I'm concerned, this is terrible business practice, and the > folks at Wolfram owe us all a large apology. > > > > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ > | Prof. David Epstein | > | Department of Political Science | > | Columbia University | > | New York NY 10027 | > | (212) 854-7566 (phone) | > | (212) 222-0598 (fax) | > | http://www.columbia.edu/~de11 | > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Wolfram Research would like to apologize for any confusion regarding the release of Mathematica 3.0 for the Macintosh. We expect to be shipping the Macintosh version by the middle of next week. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify some of the issues which Professor Epstein has raised. In addition, I would like to address the comments of Mr. Charles Bouldin from a seperate posting. First, an error in our web upgrade process for Macintosh customers resulted in the behavior Mr. Epstein describes. It was not our intention to mislead customers as to the availability of the Macintosh version of Mathematica 3.0. This mistake has been corrected. Anyone trying to upgrade to Mathematica 3.0 for Macintosh on the web will be told to expect a delay in shipping. Second, overnight shipping is an option that will continue to be available to anyone wishing to purchase Mathematica on the web. Clear indication of the availability of the platform an individual is ugrading to will be provided on the upgrade page. We do not feel that there is anything deceptive about this policy. As far as Mr. Bouldin's concern for why the Macintosh version of Mathematica 3.0 is not yet shipping, I offer the following explanation. The development of the Windows 95 version of Mathematica 3.0 progressed quite rapidly through the beta cycles. The final beta version of the software had relatively few major issues to deal with. Thus, we were able to begin shipping the Windows 95 version of Mathematica 3.0 several weeks ago. While we are extremely happy with the progress of the Macintosh version, there were some areas in which the overall quality and robustness of the program did not justify a final release. These areas have all been addressed, and as I indicated previously, we expect to ship the Macintosh version within 7-10 days. I am sure there will be general agreement that: 1) Wolfram Research had no intention of deceiving customers regarding the availability of the Macintosh version of Mathematica 3.0. We apologize for the confusion created by the lack of notification of platform availability on our web page. 2) The Windows 95 version of Mathematica 3.0 was released as soon as it met the high quality standards of every Wolfram Research product. 3) The Macintosh version of Mathematica 3.0 will be released within the next week to ten days. It, too, will meet the same high quality standards. 4) The time and effort put into this major innovation in technical computing justifies Wolfram Research's careful and measured approach to releasing the final versions of Mathematica 3.0. I hope that I have provided the necessary clarifications regarding the progress of Mathematica 3.0 for Macintosh. Again, we apologize for any confusion surrounding the information which was available on our web site. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Regards, Scott Brew Wolfram Research P.S. The address to upgrade to Mathematica 3.0 on the web is http://www.wolfram.com/upgrade.